Wendy's World

13 Things You Didn’t Know About Wendy Davis

From her love of Victoria Beckham to her teenage rebellious phase, 13 things we learned from Vogue’s September-issue profile of Wendy Davis.

Wendy Davis may be well known for her epic 13-hour filibuster of a controversial abortion bill in June, but it turns out, there's a lot we don't know about the Texas state senator. She opens up to Vogue's Heidi Mitchell in the magazine's September issue, which includes a photo shoot of Davis in Austin’s capitol rotunda. From her boyfriend to her favorite fashion brands, 13 things we learned about Davis from the interview:

Watch Davis begin her epic filibuster.

(1) The Real Bootstraps Background: Davis was raised by an aspiring-stage-actor father and a sixth-grade-educated mother. When she was 11, her family relocated to Texas, where her dad “traded his Cadillac for a Porsche, opened a small community theater,” and abandoned Wendy and her three siblings.

(2) Workin’ Hard for the Money: “Things were hard for my mom. So we all started working very young,” Davis tells Vogue. To make ends meet, she held a variety of odd jobs, from “selling newspapers door-to-door” to “slinging Orange Juliuses in a mall.”

(3) Rebel Without a Cause: Even Davis went through a teenage rebellion phase. “I decided I knew everything in the world, and I moved in with my boyfriend," she said, recounting the summer before her senior year of high school. "It was all about escape and rebellion ... There was nothing romantic about it."

(4) She's Super Close With Her Daughters: Davis likes to spend quality time with her two daughters: Amber, 31, and Dru, 24.

(5) The Best Friend: According to her daughter Amber, "Mom's best friend is Patti Kraft, whose father-in-law owns the Patriots." The Davises host Super Bowl parties in the media room of their Texas home and are "big fans" of the football team.

(6) The Boyfriend: Davis is dating Will Wynn, the former mayor of Austin and the founder of Keep Austin Weird. Being in a female-dominated home must not be easy—the family jokes about Wynn's "squeamishness" when it comes to watching HBO's Girls.

(7) She Likes to Kick Back and Relax: Davis’s idea of a perfect night is “in Luluelmon, with a glass of red wine, watching HGTV.” She also reveals to Vogue her penchant for gardening and Mexican food.

(8) Paging Elle Woods: When Davis enrolled in Harvard Law School as a young mom, she “felt so out of [her] league," she tells Vogue, citing Harvard as "the most intimidating experience."

(9) She Doesn't Know What a Meme Is: “What is a meme?” Davis asks regarding the Internet portrayal of her as Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones, staging a filibuster with a dragon on her shoulder. "I really don't get that."

(10) Frizzy Hair Is Not Her Friend: "I have super-supercurly hair, and it's a constant struggle," Davis tells Vogue. Her daughters joke about the "inconceivable number of products she collects to tame” her hair, and Davis even whips out a photo from a 2010 bar mitzvah she attended showing her out-of-control frizz.

(11) She's Turned Into Quite the Fashion Maven: She may be known for her pink running sneakers, but Davis says she prefers Escada, Chloé, Victoria Beckham, and heels by Miu Miu or Christian Louboutin. It's only recently, however, that Davis has been so fashion-forward. According to Vogue, "Her daughters have fostered her transformation in recent years to a more fashion-consicous look."

(12) But She Wears Regular Clothes, Too! Despite her love for high-end designers, Davis goes running in more simple clothing, like an Urban Outfitters scarf and red Toms slippers.

(13) Girls Run the World: Beneath her angelic blonde demeanor, Davis is a seriously tough opponent: “I’m a very competitive person,” she tells Vogue. “I do hate losing.”